Event

Friday, January 20, 8pmSaturday, January 21, 7pmSunday, January 22, 2:30pm

Saville Theatre, San Diego City College1313 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101At the corner of C Street and 14th Street

Highlights:Artistic Director Jean Isaacs chooses theme Janus after Roman god for which January is named. Like San Diego Dance Theater, Janus perspective is equally forward and backward. This concert honors the past and provides a platform for the choreographers of the future. Jean Isaacs will present critically acclaimed repertory including her ground breaking Romeos and Juliets, Elegy an homage to an artist that passed during the AIDS crisis, and new material honoring her parents and working class immigrants.NEW work to be created on the SDDT Company Dancers by 15-year soloist of the Limon Company, Juilliard Graduate and San Diego/Tijuana native, Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba.Isaacs selects LOCAL choreographers Kyle and Gina Sorensen for a chance to set a world premiere on her fully professional SDDT Company Dancers.

Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater returns to the Saville Theatre for another weekend of January Repertory Concert, for its 19th consecutive year. Entitled, this year, "Janus and Other Dances of Beginnings, Transitions, and Endings," Isaacs contributes roughly two-thirds of the program in a series of duets, both classics from the company's repertory and new choreography. Rounding out the program are two world-premiere full-company works created by Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba and by next-generation choreographers Kyle and Gina Sorensen.

Isaacs' new "Janus," for which the evening is named, features Minaqua McPherson and Desiree Cuizon-Fejeran handcuffed together back-to-back, one looking to the future, the other to the past. The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus, who presided over the beginnings and endings of conflict and hence war and peace. So this couple must choose whether to struggle with their relationship (war) or to work together while intricately bound, striving for the mutual goal of peace. A new sound score by SDDT company composer Steve Baker accompanies this dance.

"This is a highlight of our year to give our beautiful dancers the chance to thrive in a theater setting. The Saville Theatre is a little gem and the perfect venue to support "Janus"," says Isaacs, "In addition, it boasts one of the city's finest resident lighting designer in Robert Norberg, so we are thrilled to be back there and to present this exciting concert.

Also new for Isaacs is "Raldo and Maxine" named after the choreographer's parents, Raldo Baldini and Maxine Kewer, and danced by Erica Ruse and John Diaz. This couple raised six children in a small Massachusetts factory-town whose history is characterized by generations of working-class immigrants starting with the English/Scotch, Irish, Italians, Portuguese and currently accommodating Indonesians and Muslim families.

Other, earlier, duets by Isaacs included her groundbreaking Romeos and Juliets (1997) in which three different couples offer three stages in Shakespeare's classic play to the music of Sergei Prokofiev: 1- The ballroom scene (Trystan Loucado and Blythe Barton), 2- The balcony scene á la cirque, in which foolish first love is depicted by clowns (Zaquia Mahler Salinas and Jeremy Zapanta), 3- The double suicide scene as a punk couple (Jessica Curiel and Angel Acuña). And lastly, from Isaacs, "Elegy" was created to honor Tom Cochran, company director who died of AIDS in 1987. Danced by Liv Isaacs-Nollet and Cecily Holcombe to the music of Antonio Vivaldi.

And finally and perhaps the most anticipated are two world-premieres by choreographers selected by Isaacs for their emerging artistry: Kyle and Gina Sorensen and Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba. The Sorensen's as-yet-untitled work brings the SDDT company dancers into the creative process by asking them to physically translate images and directions into a dynamic movement vocabulary. Dance critic Janice Steinberg said of the Sorensen's work. "... each movement originates deep in the body and spreads through every cell, which sounds yummy and oozy, but can also produce speed and attack - whip turns, frantic pivots, sudden percussive bursts." (SanDiegoStory.com)

Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba is creating a new dance for the SDDT dancers between Christmas and New Year's. Although he has conducted several workshops in San Diego in José Limón Technique and repertory, this will be the first local viewing of Ruvalcaba's own choreography. He is likely to bring a 20-year history as the leading male soloist for the Limón Company into play as he creates. Ruvalcaba is a Mexican male, born and raised in Tijuana and San Diego, who started dancing at age eighteen a the Casa de la Cultura because a cute girl was in the class and he wanted to see her in tights. He transferred to Southwestern College and met Baroque dance expert, Shirley Wynne, whom he credits as his mentor, along with Ricardo Peralta and Jean Isaacs. After graduating from Julliard, he was fortunate to work with luminaries and perform José Limon's solos for years.